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May 28, 2010

Still no official word from Pitt on hiring Pat Skerry as the new assistant. Providence, though, has acknowledged it.

Providence College Head Coach Keno Davis will look to replace assistant coach Pat Skerry, who left to take the assistant position at the University of Pittsburgh. Davis believes that the Friars are in a good position to bring in a top assistant coach who can help move the program forward.

“I appreciate the opportunity to have had Pat work with us the last two seasons,” Davis said.

Early reports are that the Friars might replace Skerry with ex-Iowa player and present University of Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars (Div. II) head coach Kevin Gamble. Yet that same story contradicts with the fact that Davis is looking for a coach with East Coast ties. His only connection to the East was 6 years with the Celtics in the 90s.

Pitt released info on the highest paid individuals at the school. No shock that Coach Dixon is the highest paid employee.

The report says Mr. Dixon, head basketball coach, was the highest paid with $1,389,951 in total earnings, including $629,792 in base pay; $603,000 in bonus and incentive income as well as other compensation, some deferred.

This was for 2008. Not last year. So I imagine it’s a bit higher. Not sure if that includes the money he earns for basketball camps and Nike sponsorship money.

VegasWatch aggregates the various preseason polls and finds Pitt averaged out at about #7.

The Panthers were quite overrated for much of last year, but return everyone except Dixon, who didn’t have a very good season anyway. What his departure does mean though is that Gibbs is going to have to shoulder even more of the load offensively. It’s hard to get excited about this Pitt team one way or the other.

Uh, okay. I’ll quibble. Unranked to start. Picked to finish 9th in the Big East. Pitt didn’t enter the either of the polls until January. Did they rise a bit higher than warranted? Perhaps. Now it is hard to believe that they got as high as 9th, but for the most part they hung out in the second half of the top-25. Considering the number of games they won and who they beat, I hardly consider them “overrated.” Especially for “much of last year.”

I understand when you don’t look closely at this team it can be hard to understand how they did it and why pundits expect Pitt to do more next season — aside from the fact that Coach Dixon always has the team play well. There are still no big names on the team. At least not as far as the general public notices.





I saw that quote from VegasWatch yesterday, and given their loose grip on the facts, I would discount their commentary. In many respects, last year’s Pitt team was a flawed team that outperformed expectations; they may again have some of the same flaws. However, the statement that Gibbs will have to shoulder more offensive load because of Dixon’s departure demonstrates their lack of familiarity with Pitt, and frankly, undercuts their credibility across the board (at least in my eyes).

Comment by Pantherman13 05.28.10 @ 12:04 pm

probably the only thing not to be taken seriously more than a pre-season basketball poll is a pre-season football poll

Comment by wbb 05.28.10 @ 12:16 pm

“Still no official word from Pitt on hiring Pat Skerry as the new assistant…”

That’s because they’re still negotiating with Tim Grgurich….

Comment by steve 05.28.10 @ 12:28 pm

When I look up VALUE in the dictionary, I see a picture of Jamie Dixon.

Comment by Pauly P 05.29.10 @ 9:10 am

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